The Unwritten Rules of Gossiping
by FrogPrincess44
Summary: When Hermione realises that she's wasted her teenage years, it's time to turn things around "And for the rest of the week, people were gunna see another side of Hermione Granger, one they had never seen before..." Please R&R, I suck at summaries
1. Chapter 1

The Unwritten Rules of Gossiping

**Chapter 1**

Brilliant, so here I am, in my fifth year, everything's going smoothly until this happens. I've really screwed up this time, but to really understand what's going on, I'm going to have to rewind five days to Monday...

**Monday – In the Gryffindor Common Room – 8:49pm**

"No, Harry," I said for what felt like the millionth time. "I would not like to see your-" Before I continue, I would like to highlight just how inappropriate that sentence fragment may sound to those who just joined the conversation. Ron walked over and burst into a fit of laughter.

"What?" I asked, I was frustrated, about to snap.

"It's just that it sounded like you were about to say-" Ron started laughing again before he could finish his sentence, but the implication was pretty obvious.

"You know, I've had it up to here," I gestured to my head. "With all you boys and your immaturity. Girls would never behave like this, seriously, we wouldn't!" I was outraged, angry, furious, they were going to get a full fist if they weren't careful.

"Girls would behave like this, Hermione," Harry said. "Have you not heard the girls discussing who they would rather date, Snape or Flitwick?"

"But thats- they- huh..." I spluttered. "Girls aren't like that!"

"Just because you're a girl and _you're _not like that, doesn't mean every other female in this place follows suit." Ron said.

I was getting really angry now. You've got to understand, from my background, that topic of conversation rarely came up... and I didn't like it when it did.

"You've got to lighten up Hermione," Harry said. "You're always going on about learning and crap that you've forgotten to live like a normal teenager."

"I'm not normal," I said, folding my arms. "I hang out with you lot, don't I? The only person that would be dumb enough to do that has to have a few screws missing..."

"Seriously, Hermione, we're dead serious. For once maybe you should act like a normal teenage girl. Honestly, you know how you think that by being invisible you're avoiding being gossiped about?"

"Yes. Well I haven't heard any nasty rumors about myself, so I guess it's so far, so good." I shrugged.

"Not true 'Mione. Just because the rumors haven't got to you, doesn't mean they're not there." Ron said, sounding very sincere as he said it.

My face dropped. People had been gossiping about me? I had never done anything particularly mean to anyone, had I?

"Well, if you knew there were rumors, why didn't you tell me?" I asked, a bit angry that they hadn't told me any of this sooner.

"You really wouldn't want to hear them..." Harry said, raising his eyebrows and shaking his head.

"Well I really think that's up to me, don't you?" I said, still in denial that these things had really been said at all.

"Well," Harry began. "Remember that time you were having that conversation with Lavender when she was upset. And then you said, 'It's just a shame you aren't intelligent enough to see what I mean.' Well, she took it really personally and told everyone you're a self-centred, privileged, know-it-all and a downright – well I honestly don't think you'd like to hear the rest..."

I was in shock. Lavender, a girl I had considered my friend, had been gossiping about me behind my back. "Who else?" I asked.

"What?" the boys asked.

"Who else has been saying these things, who else?" I was practically shouting now. Never in my life had anything like this happened to me, I had heard about it happening to other girls, but never me, if I had known it hurt Lavender so much, I would have apologised immediately...

"Well, practically everyone, literally, like Katie, Angelina, Alicia, Ginny-"

"Ginny?" I asked, in shock. I felt a lump in my throat. This was all so sudden, I thought I was going to cry. All the people I thought I could trust...

"Yep, Ginny's one of the worst-"

"Oh gosh!" I gasped. I was shaking my head and opening and closing my mouth like a fish, I couldn't find words to form a sentence. "I'm going to confront her-"

"NO!" Harry and Ron yelled simultaneously. "You can't," Harry continued alone. "Don't you know the rules of gossiping? Hell, I'm a dude and I know them!"

"There are rules to gossiping?" I asked, feeling very upset that people hate me and now that I was so clueless about the whole thing, like an idiot.

"They're more unwritten rules, but one of them is that you never tell people when you know what they've been saying!" Ron said, the two of them standing around me to keep me from going up the girls.

"Why not? I can't just let them get away with it!" I said, trying to push Harry out the way, he wouldn't budge.

"You're meant to hold it for if you ever get in a fight, then use it against them." Harry said.

"What? That's ridiculous-" I said. "Anyway, they have to learn exactly how it feels from my point of view-"

"They already know," Harry said. I stopped shuffling when he said this. "Everyone gets gossiped about. Like the other day, I heard Ginny gossiping about Lavender, and how Lavender's always checking herself out in the mirror, and how she always pretends she has boyfriends back home, when everyone knows it's a lie."

"Yep," Ron confirmed. "And I heard Lavender saying that Ginny is so obviously jealous of the fact that she has boyfriends, just because the only person who would take her to the ball was Neville, and that was only because Lavender already had a partner."

"Really?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yep," Harry shrugged. "It's just how girls are, so it's not just you. You really need to start acting like a normal teenager."

"Yeah, try rolling up your skirt a bit, show off those dynamite legs-"

I looked down at my legs. Dynamite legs?

"Kidding," Ron said at my confusion. "Just, look at the other girls and... do what they do."

"You know, maybe what Lavender said is true. I've been so absorbed in what grades I get, that I've forgotten to really live." I stood up. "I wanna play truth or dare after midnight – on a school night. I wanna talk about guys. I wanna gossip about people for no good reason. I wanna get a boyfriend, I wanna go skinny dipping in the Black Lake-"

"Hemione? Skinny dipping? In the lake? Have you completely lost the plot?" Ron asked.

"You two need to lighten up!" I was smiling now. I pushed them both out the way and ran off up to my dormitory. I went straight to bed and fell asleep almost instantly. I didn't care anymore about grades, or even what that bimbo Lavender Brown thinks of me, I was free. And for the rest of the week, people were gunna see another side of Hermione Granger, one they had never seen before...


	2. Chapter 2

The Unwritten Rules of Gossiping

**Chapter 2**

Okay, so in case you didn't already realise, I'm Hermione. And in case you're really thick, I've decided to be normal for a while, see how it goes, you know?

**Tuesday – In the Gryffindor Common Room – 7:39am**

I walked down the stairs and into the common room. The moment I emerged into full view. All eyes were on me. I felt like a princess in a fairy-tale. It was magical. I was so excited that I didn't notice the shoe that a tripped over. I fell flat on my face and everybody laughed. That was embarrassing, very embarrassing. As I got up, I flicked my hair back and smiled. I walked over to Harry and Ron and smiled. "So... what do you guys think?" I was expecting them to say 'different, amazing, stunning, wow, beautiful. . .'

"Cheap," Harry said.

"Slutty." Ron agreed.

"What?" I asked. I was shocked.

"Too much make-up. Who the hell wears lipstick to a fifth year potions lesson." Harry said, his head not rising from the last minute homework he was doing.

"Skirt's too short. Nice pink stripy knickers you got there." Ron said, laughing.

"Damn it!" I yelled. "Then how should I look?"

"I'd say you're skirt should be about four inches above your knees." Ron said.

"And for the make-up, just a touch of foundation and maybe some clear mascara, some light brown eye-liner if you must, but nothing too striking." Harry said.

"And believe me, make sure the colour of your foundation matches your skin, there's nothing worse than having your face a different colour to your ears." Ron added.

"Oh my god, how are you two not gay?" I asked, shaking my head as I turned back to the dorm to start over.

The second time I emerged, most of the Gryffindors had cleared off to their lessons, but Harry and Ron were still there, waiting for me.

"Much better," Harry said, smiling.

"You look..." Ron was speechless. Score. "Hermione," Ron stopped for a minute. "Your hair's straight."

"Yes... your point being?" I asked, trying to shove in as much attitude as possible.

"Well... how did you do it?" Ron asked mesmerised. I shook my head a started walking. I was walking pretty fast, so fast in fact, that Harry and Ron had to run to catch up. "Really, 'Mione, how'd you do it?"

"Hair straighteners." I said bluntly. I didn't want to act too excited at the fact that they had noticed (yippee!) .

"Wait a second," Harry grabbed my should to stop me. "Electrical goods don't work in Hogwarts."

"How do you know?" I retorted.

"Because... well everyone knows..." Harry said, clearly confused.

"Well," I said, flicking his hand off of my shoulder. "Have you ever tried?"

"No..." he said.

I continued walking and yet again the boys had to catch up to me. "Well, there you go." I said.

"But they don't-" Harry started.

"They obviously do. My hair speaks for itself." I said.

"Wow, everything I've ever believed has now been out into question..."

"Shut-up Harry." I said.

As we finally reached potions and took our seats, Snape raised his eyebrows at me. The lesson went as normal until Harry passed a note to me. "What is it?" I mouthed.

Harry shrugged. "It's not from me." Harry mouthed back.

I unfolded it and read the message inside;

_Granger,_

_You look stupid. You're a mudblood. _

I sighed and looked over at Malfoy. I began to scribble my reply.

_Malfoy,_

_For your information, I look amazing. Yes I have muggle parents, okay, end of, and thirdly, when I first heard you name, I thought it was 'Mouth-boy'. _

I saw his face when he opened it. I knew he was going to get me back for this, but I didn't really care. On the desk beside me Lavender was whispering to Parvarti and they kept looking back at me. They were gossiping. Brilliant. So far things were not going so well. The only reason people were staring the first time I came out was because I looked ridiculous and then tripped. I needed to redeem myself some-how. I decided to do so at lunch...

Lunch came around and we all sat on the grass talking. Just about life and stuff. I briefly went to the ladies room and on my way back I saw Dean. I was content with just saying 'hey' without stopping or anything, but Dean grabbed my arm and turned me back round. "Hey Hermione!" he said cheerily.

"Uhhhhh, hey Dean..." I said smiling awkwardly.

"Hey, you know what's weird?" he asked.

"The fact that you're talking to me?" I said, but he wasn't really listening.

"The fact that you don't have a boyfriend. Isn't that funny?"

"Not really." I said, pulling my arm slightly, trying to make him let go, he didn't.

"You don't think so?" he asked, shrugging.

"No," I replied, finally pulling my arm free. "I'm not that amazing."

"You really shouldn't slag yourself off so much, you're an attractive girl, you ought to wake up and realise that..."

"Uhhhhh, thanks Dean." I said. I smiled and began to walk away.

"Granger!" he called.

I spun back round. "Yes?"

"Never mind." he said, and he too turned and walked away.

I didn't really know what to make of that, whether I should be happy that he had noticed me, or freaked out because he never normally talks to me. I walked slowly back to Harry and Ron, and on the way, people kept looking me up and down. I felt really exposed. Like everyone was watching my every move or was I over-reacting? As I was looking around at all the people looking at me (confusing, I know) I bumped into Lavender.

"Heeeeeey!" she said in a really fake and exaggerated happy, innocent tone.

"Hey Lavender. What's up?" I asked.

"Nothing, but I was looking for you!" she said, smiling widely.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because..." Parvarti said, emerging from behind. "We wanted to invite you to play spin the bottle tonight, just with some people, you know."

I was excited. Very excited. For once in my life I felt cool, accepted. I had to act normal, like this kind of thing happened to me all the time...

"Who else is gunna be there?" I asked casually. (so far so good)

"Oh, everyone. Me," Lavender pointed to herself. "Parvarti, all the girls-"

"And Harry and Ron and Dean and Seamus, even people from other houses." Parvarti added.

"Okay, I suppose I can come, if I'm not doing anything else..." I said calmly.

I walked off, celebrating in my head, back to Harry and Ron, this time with no interruptions. "What took you so long?" Ron asked.

"What does it matter?" I replied.

Ron shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "Just wondered."

"Are you guys playing spin the bottle tonight?" I asked, curious.

"Yep. Did Lavender invite you." Harry asked.

"Yeah!" I said, sitting down.

"This'll be a first. She's never invited you before." Ron said.

Harry gave Ron a look. "What?" I asked. "What'll be a first? What?"

Harry sighed. "Look, we've been playing spin the bottle for ages, loads of times, practically once a month. It's always been agreed that you don't tell anyone unless Lavender's invited them, plus, you don't speak of it, ever."

"That's stupid, so even though we're all invited, we can't talk about it?" I asked.

"Yep. The only time you can talk about it, and what happened during it, is when you're playing." Ron explained. Harry saw the puzzled look on my face and elaborated further.

"It's supposed to build suspense. Plus, it's very exclusive, an invitation only thing." Harry said. "And if you break the rules I.e. You invite some-one who wasn't invited by Lavender, the rule is, you can't talk to that person for a week."

"You wouldn't do that to me if I broke the rules, would you?" I asked, worried.

"Yes we would," Ron said. "It's the rules, or then we get ignored for a week."

"Anyway, we shouldn't be talking about this. It's against the rules." Harry said, finally closing the subject. Although I though the whole idea of 'rules' for spin the bottle very stupid. Plus, after all that, I didn't even know where it was and at what time.

**Tuesday – My Dormitory – 11:55pm**

I awoke to the ferocious whisper of Lavender Brown shaking me and whispering "Wake up! Wake up!" She was wearing her uniform still. I wasn't. I was in my pyjamas. I figured then that most people probably slept in their pyjamas that night, it would've been wise if I'd done the same. As we crept silently out of our dorm, we saw man others do the same. I marvelled at how many people were going to play, and how little of them I knew. We all tip-toed down the stairs and through the common room. Nobody took much care not to wake the fat lady, but I then realised it was because she was in on it. As we snuck down the main staircase, I saw many other students from other houses doing the same. I was glad to see that there was one other person still in their pyjamas. Finally we reached our destination, Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Turned out she was in on it too.

Finally, everyone relaxed and sat in a large circle. There were about thirty people there, Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Michael Corner, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Seamus, Anthony Goldstein, Ernie Macmillan, Padma and Parvarti, Dean, Harry, Ron, Lavender and a bunch of people I didn't even know the names of.

Lavender stood in her place in the circle. "I'd just like to welcome our newest three members, Mandy," a black haired Ravenclaw stood and smiled. "Ben," a blond boy from Gryffindor stood and waved. "and Hermione." I stood and waved too. "Okay, first we're gunna do three rounds of dares!"

Lavnder spun a bottle right in the middle of the large circle. Thankfully it landed on this random dude. The evening pressed on and I have to say it was good fun. Ron ended up having the play the rest of the game without his trousers on (he was still wearing his undies!). Finally we got to the kiss round. Whichever two people the bottle landed on, had to kiss. Even if it was boyxboy or girlxgirl. The first time it was Seamus and Hannah. Then the bottle stopped and was pointing at me. Everyone giggled. I bit my lip. Who was it going to be? As Lavender spun it the second time, it seemed to drag on forever. Everyone was leaning forward. It was tense. The bottle was slowing down... slower... slower... slower... stopped. It was pointing at...


End file.
